Angelus
by Silvyrrayn
Summary: After failing to restore Angel to his souless self, Darla laments to Druscilla over her feelings for Angelus.


Angelus

      "The moon is crying.  Its tears shine as they fall from the sky."  Drucilla turned her face to the dark heavens and grinned madly.  "They're lovely.  Like diamonds.  I like to catch them with my tongue."  A confused frown replaced her grin as she turned to her companion.  "But they don't taste like tears.   They burn my mouth.  Like acid."

      The blonde sighed.  She lifted her eyes from her newspaper to stare, vexed, at the crazy vampire.  "It's rain, Dru.  Just rain.  The moon isn't alive."

      Drucilla shook her head fiercely, long ebony hair flowing.  "Oh, but it is.  It weeps for its children."  She raised up a slender arm and gestured to the star filled sky.  "They're dying.  They burn brightly as they arc through the darkness.  But then they fall to the earth and they're gone."  

      Darla rolled her eyes.   "Oh please," she muttered under her breath as she turned back to her reading. "Shooting stars.  That's all they are."

      "They _are_ the moon's _children_," Drucilla said again, more forcefully, her voice taking on its natural British lilt just as it always did when she was annoyed.

      Darla threw her arms up in exasperation.  "Whatever," she said angrily.  "Just think whatever you want.  But please keep the insane rambling to yourself.  You're giving me a headache."

      Drucilla wasn't listening.  "All the death and grief is beautiful.  It makes me want to be a mother."  She cupped her arms as if cradling an invisible baby.  A slow smile spread across her pale, skeletal face.  "Do you think I could have a child?" she asked hopefully.  

     "That may be a little difficult seeing as how you're dead," Darla replied sarcastically. 

      "Oh, but it won't be my own.  I'll have to steal one."  She paused, deep in thought.  "A little girl.  With curls and yummy pink flesh," she decided.  Drucilla clapped her hands together gleefully.  "Oh goody.  We can play games together.  And dollies."  Her expression darkened.  "And then she'll die, and I'll cry tears that burn flesh."

       "Go ahead.  Do whatever you want."  Darla threw the paper on the bed.  She suddenly didn't feel like reading anymore.  She rubbed her temples.  Her head felt like it was going to explode.

      "Oh, Sissy's in a bad mood," Drucilla sang out playfully.  She held open her arms.  "Come to me," she beckoned sweetly.  "Mommy will make it all better."

      Darla glared at the crazy woman who stood in the shadows near the open window.  The moon illuminated her dark hair and made her white skin seem practically translucent.  Her eyes were blacker than the night sky.  They flickered unsteadily, seeming to see nothing, but really seeing more than what was there.  Darla hated those eyes.

      "Dru, just leave me alone.  Can't you amuse yourself some other way?"

      "Like how?  I want to play with Sissy," she pouted.

      "I don't know.  Go . . . brutally maim some old people or something."

     Drucilla's eyes lit up.  "Now there's an idea."  She turned her attention to the window.  "Are you sure you don't want to join me?"

      "I'm sure."

      "It'll be fun," Drucilla promised.  "We can make them scream.  First we'll rip out their eyes, then . . ." she trailed off, annoyed by Darla's renewed interest in the newspaper she had thrown aside.  Before Darla could retrieve it, she snatched the paper from the bed.  

      "Dru, it's not what you think," Darla protested when the vampire gleefully began skimming the front page.  Her hungry smile faded.  

      Drucilla stared at the blonde for a long moment, a perplexed frown creasing her forehead.  After a painful silence, a gleam of understanding filled her eyes.  "You were thinking about _him_."

      "Who?"  

      "You love _him_."

      Pretending she didn't hear that last statement, Darla grabbed the paper and threw it in the waste bin.  The front page heading "Wolfram and Hart, Interest For New Investors" could still be seen over the brim.

      "Well?" Drucilla let the question hang in the suddenly chilly air.

      "You know I never had any feelings for Lindsey," Darla said, nonchalantly.  She turned slightly away from the mad woman and her knowing eyes, praying that they wouldn't be able to see through her.

      "Not _him_," Drucilla replied as though the thought of a vampire loving a pathetic human was absurd.  Her long, black fingernails reached out and cupped Darla's chin, turning the blonde's head so that she could look into her eyes.  "The one who scarred our beautiful faces."

      "Angel?" Darla sneered, pulling away.  "You have to be joking."

      A funny smile played over Drucilla's lips as she stared off at nothing.  "All this time," she murmured.  "All this time you've been in love with him and I didn't see it . . ."

      "Dru, stop it."  Darla begged, a bit too forcefully.

      Drucilla's expression turned suddenly livid as her jaw grew rigid and she snarled.  "I thought I had saved you.  I freed you from your soul and still you feel for him."  Drucilla shook her head, clucking like a mother who knows her child has done something she had specifically forbidden.  "Sissy's been a naughty girl."     

      Darla sighed and buried her face in her hands as she sank down onto the bed.  There was no use fighting anymore.  "I just . . . I don't understand.  I don't understand why he changed back."

      Cooing in sympathy, Drucilla's angry demeanor faded.   She sat beside Darla and directed the vampire's head to her lap.  She ran her long fingers through the blonde hair.  "It's alright, love," she said.  "Tell me everything."

      Darla no longer cared that Drucilla could see the tears that escaped her eyes.  She accepted the vampire's sympathy as she remembered him.  "I was so _close_ . . . he was teetering on the edge of darkness.  I thought that . . ."

      "Your passion would help him cross the line," Drucilla filled in.  "You thought that sharing your bed would bring out the demon in him."  Her eyes shone.  "That Angelus would finally come home."

      "It was horrible!"  Darla sobbed.  "Not the sex.  That was perfect.  It was what happened after.  When he should have been whole again."

      "He still had his soul."  Drucilla stood slowly, leaving Darla to lie alone on the bed.  She stood before the window to look out to the city.  The City of Angels.  How appropriately named since _he_ was here.   

      "And then do you know what he did?  He thanked me," Darla spat out bitterly.  He thanked me for leading him from the darkness.  Thanked me for his epiphany."

      "But you still love him," Drucilla said as she watched the people move far below on the streets.  The foolish mortals he worked so hard to protect.  Oh, she would feast tonight.  And there would be a bloodbath so terrible its likes had not been seen since Angelus himself walked the earth.

      "I love Angelus, Dru.  I want him back."

      "Don't worry, love."  Drucilla smiled, but it was a cold smile; one that didn't reach her eyes.  They flickered unsteadily, seeming to see nothing but really seeing more than what was really there.  "It won't be long.  Soon Angelus will be with us again."

      Darla sat up and wiped her puffy, red eyes on the back of her sleeve.  "Dru, are you sure?"

      Those eyes stared back at her.  Those knowing, blacker than night eyes.  "Daddy's coming home."      


End file.
